Originally Posted by
jc94
To recoup the money AC will then raise bag fees by $5 and waive the fee for SE3MM only.
Let's be honest, half the issue outside of people with half a dozen bags is caused by AC and the rest of the industry charging for bags to make extra money. And not being willing to refit their aircraft to even fit one roller per person (I keep hearing rumours about this but have never seen it actually happen).
I'd be perfectly happy to check everything if AC would guarantee that my bag(s) would arrive promptly, to the same airport I'm in, without damage regardless of if I'm carrying sneakers, a laptop, or a DSLR. I don't trust airlines with the latter two therefore they go in my backpack which goes on with me.
For me, it has more to do with timely delivery. Even based on what I'm writing further down, I generally "trust" them to deliver my bag, undamaged, unmolested, to my destination, on my arrival flight.
But I don't earn status and pay for J because I like waiting around. Guarantee my (priority tagged) bag will be on the carousel before I get there, and I'll never take anything larger than a laptop bag on board.
But back this guarantee by something. $2-$3 per minute of waiting. Cash. Otherwise it's not worth it.
Originally Posted by
MasterGeek
Some also have no choice but to challenge the rules in a passive-agressive way because as individuals they have no negotiating power against the airline to change the rules.
Is it ok to challenge rules that are unfair or discriminatory ?
In general, I would say yes. But by you taking more than what's allowed, you're forcing someone else to gate check. So you're not hurting the airline, you're hurting a zone 5 or late connecting passenger.
Originally Posted by
Wpgjetse
AC does deliver your bag, undamaged, at your arriving airport 99.99%of the time. My last missed place/non delivered or damaged bag withAC is well over 10 years ago. So in real numbers, 1 in over 1200 flights. Bag or service fees are everywhere, in every business, so they are not going away anytime soon. You or your employer are most like charging them too.
I have been on two AC flights since becoming SE where my bag did not show up when expected.
I have checked a bag at most 8 times (I can't recall which Christmas I did or did not, so I'm adding one in each direction for each Christmas).
So as SE, I've had issues at least 25% of the time.
Is this typical? No. Both issues were due to major weather issues that resulted in cancellations of my flight.
But it resulted in a horrible experience for me, because I had my winter coat in there, along with other things I needed.
And yes, I went shopping and was reimbursed. But I was already delayed 16 hours due to the cancellation, and then I had to go shopping.
So again, GUARANTEE (with a VERY strict penalty for breaking it) that my bag will make it (and quickly!), and I'll check a bag every trip.
Until then, it's not worth the risk.